Your complete guide to making the beloved Megrelian Khachapuri: Step 1To make the dough: Combine flour, yeast, and a bit of salt. Then add warm water and knead the dough until homogeneous. Periodically add some oil as needed to make the dough softer. Cover with plastic wrap and allow rising until doubled in bulk, about an hour. Punch the dough down with your fist and allow it to rise again about 40 minutes.
"Georgia reminded me of Southern Italy," Larissa Graf, Swiss wine and gastronomy specialist tells me as we meet-up in Zurich to chat about her first trip to Georgia. "I liked the fact that you can serve your food, which in theory means that you can eat less. But there is always so much delicious stuff that you end up overeating anyway."
Have you noticed that the western words for wine- vin, vino, wine, wein- are very similar to each other? Many of those words seem to be borrowings, since the people in those countries historically did not grow grapes and make wine. On the other hand the oldest wine-making site discovered anywhere in the world thus far is in Georgia and its probable that the western words for wine may have derived from the Georgian word for wine- Ghvino (ღვინო). It’s also believed that the Georgian script has been modeled after the shape of the vine`s curly offshoots. Which is a living testament to the incredibly old age of Georgian language as well as the legendarily ancient tradition of wine-making. The script you see...
1. Georgia is considered the birthplace of wine as the researchers traced the world's first known wine creation back to the South Caucasus people in 6,000 BC. 2. Georgia has over 500 native grape varieties that grow nowhere else in the world. 3. Georgian traditional winemaking technology is unique in the world, for it is based on the use of the Qvevri - large terracotta pots, initially used for the fermentation and maturation of wine but gradually forgotten everywhere, except in Georgia. 4. Another ancient practice of winemaking used in Georgia is skin contact when the grape skins are not removed, as in typical red wine production, and are kept in contact with the juice for days or even months depending on...
